"The Bad With The Good"

Harry and Margaret looked at each other and then at Glory. She was the only one to have really noticed that anything was amiss. Others just assumed that the shelves were getting low as people bought stuff for themselves. They each gave a silent nod to each other. Glory had dedicated her entire life to this town and if they couldn't trust her who could they?

"We have just been preparing for the worst. You have seen the stories of looting on the news. It may not happen here but when push comes to shove it always comes down to every man for themselves," they whispered back.

Then looking around to make sure no one was even remotely in range they gave her a stern look. "Look Doc we do have half a plan but it will depend on a few things. We have a friend who works up at the chateau, you know the one near the national monument. Well he is due to come in soon to put in his winter order. We figure the air will stay cleaner up there and then there are the caves. Maybe if we take the food we have hidden we might be able to ride this thing out. Our only problem now is that the mayor has closed the road off and we don't want to give him any ideas like that. I don't think he has even considered that possibility. You are more than welcome to join us but we have to warn Harry somehow before he drives straight into trouble."

Introducing Sophia Laird:

The pickup truck shot down Culver Drive at almost twenty miles over the speed limit, crossing the yellow dotted line in the left handed turns, kicking up dust and gravel beyond the solid white line in right handed turns. And the young men sitting in the cab and standing in the bed, clinging desperately to the role bar, all laughed hysterically in between cries of surprise as their driver repeated almost killed them with his antics.

Suddenly, the truck's brakes locked up and the rig slid to a screeching stop. A beer can flew from the hand of one of the men in the back, bouncing over the cab and hood to land upon the road where it sprayed it contents all about. The man laughed, then -- realizing it was the last brew available -- hollered, "What the fuck, Dan?"

Dan opened the driver's side door and stepped out from behind the wheel to the pavement, wobbling a bit in his lightly intoxicated state. Some of the other men joined into the chastising of their driver, each stopping one by one only after they realized what had caused Dan to stop and what was attracting his attention.


"Oh my God!" one of the men hollered, "I'm in love!"

The hoots and hollers and cat calls and inappropriate suggestions and offers exploded as the woman neared the truck. She said nothing, only continuing to walk directly down the middle of the narrow, country road toward the drunken men. By the time she was only a handful of yards away from the truck, the man who'd lost his beer was standing atop the pickup's cab, his weight pressing the roof downward, causing the metal to pop and snap almost musically as he moved.

He unzipped his pants and pulled his cock out, waggling it at her with one hand as he waved about his own pistol in the other. Identifying his weapon and pleasure organ respectively as he went on, he sang, "This is my pistol...! This is my gun...! This one's for killing, this one's for fun."

Suddenly the woman raised her own pistol, aimed it at him, and pulled the trigger. She pulled it again, each time aiming at another one of the men. Five shots, five hits, five men on the ground or in the truck bed or dangling over it. As she circled the vehicle, she pumped a shot into the skull of each of the men, whether she thought they were alive or not. When she'd fully circled the pickup, she was the only one of them still alive.

She surveyed the scene, then -- as if nothing important had happened at all -- she simply pulled the dead driver out from behind the wheel, took his place, and headed off. She arrived at an intersection a few minutes later. She turned left for no particular reason at all and headed up the road ... toward the Oregon Caves.

As Glory listened to her friends' tag team explanation of their plan, her brain was being torn in two directions. She knew she should stay here to help her neighbors. She was a doctor, and it was her sworn duty to go to where the medical need was located. But radioactive fallout was not discriminating: when it arrived, it would affect -- and eventually kill -- nearly every one it reached, and it would not care that Glory was a doctor.

As the couple had, Glory peeked about herself for eavesdroppers before making her intent to them obvious. "Iodine. We'll need iodine ... limits damage to the thyroid. Bananas, for the potassium. Multi-vitamin tablets ... particularly those high in calcium ... magnesium."

She continued with her list, including antioxidants, activated Charcoal -- "Water filters, maybe for aquariums" she inquired -- fresh papaya, beets, organic vegetable oil, sesame oil, olive oil, and more.

"Yeast," she added after a moment of thinking." A customer hurried up to the register, causing Glory to pause and feign an interest in the latest People magazine and its article about some super star she could not have identified to save her life. When again alone with the two, Glory said, "As far as getting past the Mayor's people, I have an idea."

She looked around the register until she found a copy of the Cave Junction Chamber of Commerce Handout. She opened it to the middle page, a map, saying, "This is how you normally get to the Caves."

She snatched a blue tipped felt marker from a rack of Flare pens and followed Highway 46 from Cave Junction to the Monument. She looked around again for eavesdroppers before marking an "X" where the highway crossed over Chapman Creek. "And that's where the Mayor and Sheriff are setting up the road block on Highway 46. I heard Rick, from the body shop ... I heard him talking about how he was heading out there to keep all the pot growers and meth cooks at bay, his words."

She then followed a second route, this one following Holland Loop out past the last property that remained of her family's once vast real estate empire.
"This is how we get around the road block ... Holland Loop road. It'll get us around the road block and back to the Highway, then up to the caves."

She pushed the map across the counter to Harry, saying, "Only question is ... where have you been hiding your stuff ... and can you get it to Holland Road without being deemed suspicious?"

The pair looked at her. They weren't to sure about letting her know exactly where they were keeping their goods. " There will be no problems with us getting the goods to Holland road. I wouldn't want to do it during the day though. We have it all loaded up in trucks so if they are seen headed out of town it is going to cause a stir. It would be best if we did it early in the morning, maybe about 3 in the morning."

They also listened to her list. "Most of those things we already have. We have been stockpiling a fair bit of nonperishable items but all that fresh food might be a problem. We haven't had a fresh food delivery in almost a week. We have some fruit and vegetables in our large fridges but it has all been frozen a little so it may not be the best. We have the bananas, and beets but no to the papayas. We can get a lot of onions, potatoes, yams and other root vegetables though. We thought we could actually grow some. We also included some seeds as well for the same reason. What with all those pot growers out there i am assuming there has to be a grow set up we could find."

Glory couldn't help but laugh at that last. When Oregon legalized recreational marijuana, the hundreds of illegal pot grows across the Southern part of the state no longer had to remain hidden in the public forests or the south forty of large farms or the basements of homes right here in Cave Junction. That would be fortunate now to Glory, Harry, Margaret, and -- presuming they made contact and arrangements both -- the people planning on hiding out at the caves.

Of course, they were still only assuming that that last was going to happen. They hadn't actually made contact with any of the people up at the caves. But Glory was confident that Harry and Margaret were right about such a concept. It simply made common sense, and while Cave Junction may not have seemed like much to many, it had survived all of these decades on people who knew how to use their common sense to their advantage.

"I will go home, to my office," she told the couple, "and begin packing my stuff. I'll be ready to go at a moments notice. You..." She looked to them with a great amount of expectation and gratitude in her eyes. "You have only to tell me when and where to be."

She took out her debit card to pay for the items in her basket, finished with the couple, and left. Half way to her car, she began sobbing. She was going to abandon those with whom she had always lived and loved, and for what...? To save her own skin? She was trying to justify this decision on the fact that a dead doctor was no good to anyone, but a living doctor was good to at least those who still remained. But it didn't keep Glory from sitting in her car for twenty minutes, crying softly as her tears dripped onto the small .38 pistol in her hands with which she contemplated simply ending it all here and now.

*****************

Edited the morning of the 23rd:
OOC: TNNG and I have worked out a plot for a scene that begins at this moment. It begins with his post below.

A scene thread involving Gloria "Doc Glory" Benson and the Harder family children starts right here..

In this scene thread, it is about 4pm, nearing darkness, Sunday November 25th, 2018.

Harry had helped the gleaners go through the rations and find things they could use to make a meal for forty odd people. It was going to be a simple stew using most of his remaining fresh vegetables as well as ones that had been donated, his supply of meat and some tinned ones they had found and the survival rations and dehydrated food stuffs.

It wasn't going to be gourmet by any standards but it would be edible thanks to the dried herbs and spices he had on hand. He was thankful for those and not just for cooking purposes. He knew a lot of them were actually good as medicinal remedies as well.

Still he knew he had to get in contact with Harry and Margaret and check out the situation. He walked into the office and closed the door, then picked up the phone. Sure enough it had a dial tone and looking at the clock he phoned their home address. He let it ring out and tried again and still received no answer. Well he would try again in an hour and hopefully catch them then. They really needed the food, but more than that they needed intelligence about how things were going down there.

(OOC: This post occurs at 8pm Sunday night, after Alice and Taylor's scene thread has ended. I make note of this because that thread is still being written but -- although Anthony and I are still playing the thread by ear -- we both know where our respective characters will be after it ends.)

(OOC: Also, I changed Sophia's original post to put her behind the wheel of the vehicle belonging to the men she killed rather than on foot.)

Sophia Laird passed several cars as she unhurriedly climbed the winding road. She slowed to read a sign that indicated she was entering the Oregon Caves National Monument. She had never been there, and since she had no other plans -- as well as five bodies in her rear view mirror -- she thought Why not?

But when she neared the parking lot, she found the gates closed and a school bus parked across the road just beyond it. As she slowed to a stop less than twenty feet from the bus, two large flood lights mounted left and right of the bus's ends fired up, blinding her.

The gate across the monument's entrance did not surprise her. It was, after all, November, and many of the country's national parks and monuments were closed or about to close by now. Plus, the world was at war and a cloud of nuclear fallout about to kill or sicken billions of people across the planet, so ... recreational opportunities were likely not a high priority to the US government right about now. But the school bus across the road told her that someone was here, and that that someone did not want her in there; and the big lights that were making her squint told her that that someone wanted to be able to see her without being seen him- or herself.

After a moment, a voice sounded over a bull horn. "Please turn out the head lights."

Sophia hesitated. The pickup was still running, and she had only to throw it into reverse and slam the gas down to escape. But ... what would she be escaping? Sophia had no idea who was in, near, or beyond the bus; and she was quickly becoming very curious about the situation at hand. She reached to the old pickup's dash and pushed in the plunger, causing the illuminated yellow bus to disappear to her.

"Please step out of the vehicle," the male voice again sounded through the bull horn, "and move to stand before it so we can see you."

Again Sophia hesitated. A normal person might think following the instructions would make them vulnerable to the unseen person or persons. But, Sophia was not normal. She emerged from the pickup and moved around to the front ... with her .45 still in her right hand and her black shopping bag in the left.

Post for Taylor:

"Oh my god," a man inside the bus murmured at the sight of the beauty emerging from the pickup:


"I think I'm in love," another man said, having no idea that the man who had said that about the woman earlier in the day was laying in the middle of Culver Drive attracting flies, coyotes, and -- when he really began stinking up the forest -- turkey vultures.

"Gun!" the first man said suddenly.

Taylor felt the frantic movement of the men in the bus as they dropped down behind the buss thin metal walls, as if they would stop a large caliber bullet. Fearing panic, he whispered, "Settle down! We've got'em, too."

He turned his attention back to the woman. She was incredible, there was no doubt there. Despite having just fucked Alice a couple of hours earlier, Taylor was already imagining laying this woman -- obviously no naïve, virginal teen -- over his desk in the Park's office and pounding her from behind. He lifted the bullhorn again, pressed the trigger, and asked, "Don't suppose you would mind setting that pistol and bag on the hood of the pickup and stepping away from it ... from the pickup and gun both, I mean?"

(OOC: She's only twenty feet away. Is the bull horn necessary? )

Sophia cocked her head, trying to pin down the location of the man politely asking her to disarm. With the two lights -- moving slightly, so obviously manned -- still shining into her eyes, it was impossible to see much except for the rig behind her and a couple of yards of pavement before her feet. She turned slightly to her right and set the pistol atop the pickup's hood. Turning back, she simply dropped the bag to the road surface. When she did, it popped open. Bills of all denominations began escaping in the light wind, tumbling over the road into the darkness. Sophia showed no concern about the loss.

"Do you have any other weapons?" the man asked from the direction of the bus.

Sophia smiled at the question. People had often accused her of being a weapon in and of herself. She had once punched a man so hard in the temple with just her fist that she'd put him in a coma for six weeks before he finally emerged with some permanent memory loss. The fact that he'd been a well respected State Representative and had been trying to rape her prevented her from being charged. In answer to her question, she reached to her waist, grasped the lower hem of her top -- which had been meant to be worn with much more than she was currently wearing -- and ripped the thing right off over the top of her head in one swift movement. Standing in the bright light in nothing but a push up bra and a pair of boy shorts -- both very black against her fair skin -- as well as her tall boots, Sophia held her arms out from her side a few inches and turned slowly. She hesitated when her shapely buttocks were facing the men, then finished her turn to face them again.

"I could be hiding something below these," she said making her best game show hostess wave toward first her bra, then her panties. "Do I need to shed them to reassure you?"

AngelEyes1994 said:

(OOC: She's only twenty feet away. Is the bull horn necessary? )

Click to expand...

(OOC: Sorry, you're right. )


When the woman pulled her top up over her head, the man to Taylor's right murmured Oh Jesus save me while the man on his left only murmured in his native Spanish. When she asked if she needed to shed what remained of her clothing, the English speaker begged toward him, "Oh, purdy purdy purdy please, Ranger. Tell her yes!"

Taylor couldn't help but laugh, still listening to the Spanish speaker mumbling to himself in a cadence that sounded even more like praying for nudity than the other man's pleas. Taylor told the men to lower the lights so they weren't blinding the woman, then made his way to and through the door, telling the men, "It would be nice if just one of you was watching the gun on the hood."

The man made his way around the end of the bus and toward the woman. He intentionally put one of the lights at his back and a bit to the side, putting himself in silhouette to her but not blocking the light's beam upon her. He warned her, "I'm armed, so ... it would be nice if you let the pistol be."

She made no move to retrieve her weapon, only staring at Taylor as he slowly moved to her left, around her to retrieve the gun, then continuing around to use the second light to give him the advantage. He looked her up and down, smiling, knowing she couldn't see it with the light at his back. She was incredible. Tall, thin, rounded where a woman should be. She was proud of her look, obviously, and not afraid to show herself off, which made Taylor hope she was also not afraid to use that incredible figure to please others, particularly himself.

Taylor knew that the woman was cold: it was probably in the mid 40s and she was practically naked. But she didn't seemed to even notice the chill, except for her body's natural ability to shiver, which it was. He knew he should have offered to let her put her top back on as well as offer her his coat. But he was enjoying the view that was being given him so freely.

(OOC: Angel, sending you a PM with info and questions. Use them in your post as you wish.)

(OOC: I used the questions you suggested in the suitable order and entered his responses as you permitted. Hope you like the choices.)

Sophia was studying the man as much as he was studying her. He was a good looking man, rugged and built strong. She imagined that he could probably give her one helluva hard fuck, driving her to multiple orgasms ... right before she pulled out a knife and cut his dick off for ... well, for what ever reason she found plausible at the time. Men always gave women a reason to want to castrate them. This man surely would, too.

"Who are you?" he asked, seemingly unconcerned that she was shivering against the chill of the November evening. "What's your name."

"Sophia Laird," she said. She looked off toward the bus, left and right to the lights -- now pointing toward the ground but still bright enough to hide the two men holding them -- as she asked, "What's yours?"

"Taylor Edwards," he told her. "I'm a Park Ranger here at the Monument. What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for a safe place to hide," she answered, looking into his eyes with a smirk as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

He must have thought telling her he was a Ranger here was enough of an answer. Or maybe he simply did not want to impart too much information to this strange woman who showed up with a gun and bag of cash and then -- without being asked to do so -- stripped down to her underwear in 40 degree temperatures.

"Why do you have a gun?" Taylor asked, lifting in his left hand the .45 she'd brandished clearly before giving it up so easily. He looked to the bag on the ground, from which money was continuing to blow off into the darkness. "And what's with the cash?"

"Why do you have a gun?" Sophia asked, looking to the 9mm in his right hand, dangling unthreateningly but still with the hammer back, ready for use. She looked off to the bus again, asking calmly, "What kind of guns are they pointing at me? Rifles, I hope. Shotgun spread might get you, too. Unless they're using buck shot, bird shot would only hurt me anyway. Make me mad."

She looked back into Taylor's face. While he thought that his face was hidden from Sophia's view by the bright light behind him, the truth was that the light reflecting off the pickup behind her was lighting the man's face enough for her to study his expressions, as well as watch him pull his gaze up from her nearly naked body each time she turned her attention back to him.

She answered the second part of his question in a soft, matter of fact voice. "I robbed someone. I didn't kill him. But I did shoot him. If it helps, he deserved it."

"Put your top back on ... Sophia," he finally said. As she picked up her top and began donning it, Taylor took a step back -- getting out of her potential reach, she figured -- to holster his weapon, slip hers into the small of his back, and remove his jacket, which he handed out to her. "Cover yourself up before you freeze to death."

"I'm good," she said casually, looking past him. She turned as if to head beyond the bus and asked, "That way, right?"

"That way, right?" Sophia asked, indicating that she was ready and expecting to enter the monument with Taylor.

He swept a hand in invitation to her, then looked toward that end of the bus and ordered, "Get that light out of our eyes."

A moment later, the light went dark. Sophia waited a moment, then headed forward, guided by the illumination of the spot light to her right. Taylor let her get a few steps ahead before he followed behind her. When they reached the end of the bus, he pulled a Maglite from his belt and clicked it on, illuminating the trail ahead. "Watch your step 'til you get to the pavement."

As they moved ahead, Taylor widened the spotlight's beam. It was meant to seem like he was only trying to better her view of the uneven ground, but in all honesty, he wanted the beam wider so that its edges would illuminate Sophia's back end. The lower curves of her tight ass were more than obvious below the short hem of the top. Taylor didn't know much about women's fashions, but he was sure that the top had been intended to be worn with a skirt or pants of tight fitting leggings. Except for at a big city meat market dance club, he'd never seen a woman wear something so short in public before. To help him -- or possibly extend their time ogling the woman -- both of the lights behind him swept around to illuminate them, their path, and their destination as well.

"Straight ahead there," he told her, lifting the flashlight to illuminate the Park Office building at the far end of the overflow parking lot, then lowering it again to shine upon the pavement and Sophia's delicious behind. He had no intention of taking this armed stranger up to the Chateau until he was certain that she was no danger to the others. "It might not look like much, but it's warm and dry ... and there's food."

And condoms in the bed side lamp table, Taylor thought. He'd used one with Alice earlier because he hadn't wanted to get her pregnant. With this woman, he presumed, he would want to wear one to protect himself from the wide array of questionable men she'd fucked in the past. You don't just sleep with your partner, he recalled from the STD commercials, you sleep with all of your partner's partners, too.

"Why did you rob the guy you said you robbed?" Taylor asked as they got closer to the Office. "I mean, you don't seem to care about the money. You left it laying back there in the road, blowing about. So, if you didn't want it, why take it in the first place?"

"Why did you rob the guy you said you robbed?" Taylor asked.

Sophia had not been expecting the question, simply because the bag full of money meant nothing to her and she had already essentially forgotten it even existed.

He continued his questions, finishing, "So, if you didn't want it, why take it in the first place?"

"Because he wanted it," she answered, not looking back to the man. "He wanted it. And I wanted him to not have it, simply for that reason."

Sophia could just imagine what was going through the man's head. Her logic was perfect, but ... well, crazy. She continued forward toward the little building upon which she soon saw the sign identifying it. She asked whether Taylor lived here; how long he'd lived here; how long he'd been with the park; what he did; and more, not really caring whether he answered or not. She was just trying to use the sound of his voice to judge whether or not he was close enough for her to strike out at him. One of those many things she had had to educate herself in due to her parents lack of interest in her had been hand to hand defense. She had a fairly good idea that, if she struck fast enough, she could at the least knock the Ranger off balance and flee into the night.

But he was too far back. And she'd given herself up out at the gate to learn more about what was happening here, so ... why attempt an escape now, right? Instead she continued forward to the building ... opened and passed through the door ... headed immediately across the small office to the living quarters, ignoring the Ranger's response to her continuing forward motion ... and then continuing through the living quarters directly to and through the open bathroom door.

"I'm cold, and I'm going to take a hot shower," she finally said, turning to face Taylor who was standing just beyond the bathroom door, his guard up. She once again stripped the shirt off her body with a swift motion. She stood there for a moment, watching Taylor watch her. She smiled, cocking her head with a flirtatious look, saying, "You can watch if you want ... guard me you could call it. Or..."

She reached a hand up to the middle of her back and popped the bra loose, exposing her firm, smallish tits and their chill-hardened, dark nipples; then pushed the boy shorts off her hips and to the floor, revealing her hairless groin and the tantalizingly teasing clit that just ever so slightly poked its head out for his viewing.

She hesitated again, then turned and slid open the shower door, turning on the water as she said without looking to Taylor, "Or ... you can join me."

Harry was debating with himself. He was sitting in the little office behind the hotel reception room with his feet up on the desk, leaning back in the reclining chair clutching a small glass. In the glass were two ice cubes and a small portion of good scotch from a bottle he had safely hidden. Every now and then he was taking a sip from it as he thought about the situation.

He had picked up the phone and had gotten a dial tone and just to test it had phoned up the local pizza place. Sure enough it had connected and the guy on the other end had acted all normal. Harry had apologized and told him it was a wrong number but it had proved that the line had worked. Now he was thinking about whether to phone his food supplier or not. Sure it was not a big place but would the local sheriff have the ability to tap the phones?

Finally his need to know and their situation got the better of him. He would just have to be very circumspect about where he was calling from. He picked up the phone and dialed his home number. It only took a minute for him to answer.

"Hey Harry it's your twin." This was a running joke between them when they had found out they had the same name. "Just calling about my delivery and wondering if it would still be available considering."

He heard heavy breathing on the other end and then what sounded like a sob before Harry's voice answered him. "No it's okay, yours was processed early so it will be all good. In fact we have it packed up and ready to be sent. The Missus and I can drive it out you just have to tell us when, you know how those inspectors and Somalians get in your way. Might even have those medical supplies you need as well."

Harry listened and tried to puzzle it out. Obviously they thought someone might be listening in too and were trying to give him information he needed without them knowing. Obviously they had food and drink for him and it sounded like a lot. They also both wanted to come up. Well that was a given, but what was that other stuff. Suddenly it hit him and he almost thumped his head on the desk in frustration. He had meant Cops and Pirates, so they must have set up road blocks or something at the bottom of the hill. Valuable information. They had almost been going to drive right into them.

Now what was medical supplies about? He always ordered them anyway so why mention them unless...The doc! She must want to come up too. "That's great Harry, I have been looking forward to those. If you can get it to me by tomorrow or the next day that will be greatly appreciated. I will be waiting for you on the road in case you have trouble finding the place like last time."

"Yeah that loop road is a killer but I think I remember it. Still I sure would appreciate it. I will try to get out there by about 3. I know it's early but I can get someone to mind the store and we will be back way before it's time to shut her up."

Harry got the message. He had stressed early a bit so they were coming in the morning not in the afternoon. He would also check his map for any road that looped onto the main road up to the chateau.

"Well looking forward to that delivery Harry. See you in a couple of days."
With that he hung up the phone and downed his scotch. It was going to be a long few days and they had some planning to do but hopefully soon they would be flush with goods.

Taylor stared in shock as the beautiful and now very naked stranger stepped into his Parks Office residence shower and invited, "Or ... you can join me."

Normally, Taylor wouldn't have hesitated even the length of a single breath. She was beautiful and sexy and inviting. But, she was also mysterious -- frightening so -- having shown up on a cold autumn night in virtually nothing with a gun and a bag of money, which she confessed she'd stolen from a man to whom, Taylor was certain, she'd caused a level of hurt. Was it really safe to be stripping down and disarming himself to get jiggy with a woman like this?

Contemplating the similarity of this opportunity to fucking a slutty bar fly without protection, Taylor decided that this one particular fuck just wasn't worth the risk. Not until he knew more, at the least. He called into the bathroom, "I would love to join you, but ... I have things to do. I'll, um... I'll be just outside ... in case you need anything."

Taylor thought he heard the woman respond, but he couldn't make out the words. He backed out, pausing to ask himself if he was sure this was the right decision before he closed the door. Again he hesitated, chastising himself for being a scaredy cat before heading to and through the Office's door. He stopped short at the sight of Juan Ruiz standing on the sidewalk, staring at him with a wide, toothy smile. He asked with annoyance, "What?"

"Really?" the man asked, his Northern Mexico accent obvious in only that one word. "What you do with woman?"

"She's taking a shower," Taylor informed him, gesturing him toward the open door as he began, "Listen, I need you to--"

"You see her?" Juan interrupted. When Taylor only gave him a confused expression, the Naturalized Citizen clarified with excitement, "You see her naked?"

"No!" Taylor lied without hesitation. He waved the man inside impatiently. "No, I didn't see her naked, and neither will you, so don't get your hopes up. Now, listen..."

Taylor pulled the woman's .45 from the small of his back, ejected the clip to see that it was missing several rounds -- a red flag for him -- and then checked to see if a round was chambered, which one was. He handed it butt first to Juan, then snatched the man's shotgun from where it was slung over his shoulder.

"I want you to stay here," Taylor stressed, "and I want you to keep her here, too."

Juan's smile spread wide as he glanced toward the open bedroom door.

"Hey!" Taylor said, slapping a hand upon the horny man's upper arm. When the man whose wife and children were in the Chateau at this very moment looked back, Taylor leaned in closer and looked him hard in the eyes. "Do you remember what she was carrying when she showed up, in the dark, unannounced?"

Taylor gave the man a moment to come up with an answer but could see that his mind was still filled with the image of being alone here with a sexy woman who stripped down to her panties and bra without having been asked to do so. "Hey! A gun! And a bag full of money, which she left out there, blowing away into the forest. You need to think with your head ... this head--" He tapped a finger to Juan's forehead, then pointed a finger downward as he finished, "--not that one."

They chatted for a moment about the particulars of watching the woman -- what she could do, where she could go, etc. -- and then Taylor left. He hurried up the path to the Chateau and found a handful of men and women sitting around the fireplace. Some of them had volunteered earlier in the evening for security. Taylor asked for a volunteer to go help with a situation but did so without speaking of the woman at the center of it all. The last he needed was another horny male in his office.

The volunteer headed down to the Office as Taylor took a tour around the building, reassuring those Cavers who were scared or concerned, flirting with those who made his cock twinge, and checking in with the Gleaners to see how the list of needed items was going. He took the new pages with him to the caretakers office.

"Hey, Harry," he said, finding the man behind his desk, feet up.

Taylor wondered whether the man's casual body language was the sign of a normally confident, easy going man or the feigned attitude of a man who didn't want to reveal his panic. Taylor wouldn't blame Harry for being either or something in between. Despite his seemingly confident dealings with the others, Taylor himself was very nervous about what was happening here in his Monument. They were doing something really unusual here: strangers from every walk of life preparing to hide out in the dark of a deep cavern for weeks, possibly months, while the world beyond the opening died a slow, agonizing death.

He walked to the man's desk and set the pages down. He pointed out the priority numbers the Gleaners had assigned, as well as his own numbers that disagreed with a handful of them. The two discussed the items for a few minutes, with more items being added and other items -- of which Harry already had plenty -- being scratched off.

"I also thought of something while I was out in the park," Taylor told him. "We had a leaky barn roof when I was a kid, and my dad covered it with that plastic film stuff ... you know, in the rolls, to keep the crap inside dry until we could put on a new roof. I know this is going to sound crazy, but ... could we cover the chateau with this stuff before we go down into the caves ... to keep the fallout from, what's the word...? ...imbedding...? From getting into the shingles...? When we come back out from the caves, we could peel it away ... wrap it all up ... hide it away somewhere out of the way."

Taylor and Harry had earlier in the day discussed what came after they left the cave, but this hadn't been part of the conversation at the time. There was going to be radioactive fallout every where, and there was still the possibility that after they came back above ground, they would all still die a horrible death.

(OOC: I have permission to play Juan btw.)

Sophia was very surprised -- shocked even -- that the Ranger had not stripped off his clothes and come into the shower to fuck her. She was not disappointed, only surprised. She stood under the hot water for several minutes, exiling the cold that had invaded her so deeply earlier. When she felt herself again, Sophia reached out for a towel, dried, wrapped herself, and headed out into the bedroom expecting to find Taylor still there.

Instead, she found a Hispanic man standing in the middle of the residential area's living room, staring at her with wide eyes. His right hand rested nervously on the butt of a .45 -- her .45 -- stuck in the front of his belt. She looked him up and down conspicuously, giving him an approving little smirk. He was nothing special, but Sophia always gave every man the feeling that he was something worth getting excited over. Turning to face him directly, she unwrapped the towel, giving Juan just a super quick flash of her front before she wrapped the towel tighter around her small bosom and tucked it in.

"Hey, handsome," she said as she moved out of the bathroom toward him with a slow, swaying hips walk. She continued to look him up and down. "What's your name?"

"Juan," he answered. "Juan Ruiz."

She stopped just two feet from the man, who even in her bare feet was shorter than she was by half an inch. She studied him from head to toe, then set her eyes on his face. Her smile widened and her head cocked a bit. "I'm Sophia. Are you married, Juan?"

"Si, senorita," he answered, his smile fading a bit at the thought of his wife in the Chateau while he stood here with this nearly naked woman.

"Is she here with you ... at the Caves?"

Juan nodded reluctantly.

"Do you love her, Juan?" Sophia asked, her ever question asked in a lower volume and with a more seductive tone.

Juan hesitated before responding, but finally nodded.

"Do you think I'm pretty ... Juan."

The man chuckled. "Si, senorita."

"Do you think you could make love to me right here, right now, Juan..." she asked, her voice barely audible even to the man standing just before her. She hesitated, watching his eyes widen and his mouth begin to fall open. "...and still love your wife tomorrow."

Sophia did not know whether the man could have responded if he had wanted. She cocked her head the other way, then reached to her towel, pulled it loose, and let it fall to the floor about her feet. Juan's eyes immediately fell to her breasts, then lower, then back up. The married man's face was filled with panic.

"You can touch them if you want, Juan," she said, caressing her own hands up her belly to cup and gently grope her small breasts. She lowered them to her belly, just above her shaved pussy and urged, "It's okay, Juan. I won't tell your wife."

Juan's nervousness was so obvious, as was his lust. His gaze kept shifting from her face to her breasts to her hands, which were now touching the shaved skin at the meeting of her thighs, just above the pussy he surely wished to pierce tonight. Finally, he hesitantly raised his left hand up to hover just before Sophia's breast.

"Go ahead, Juan," she purred. "I want you to."

He pressed his hand to her breast, drawing an excited breath. He groped it, then touched his fingers to her pert nipple.

"The other one's getting jealous, Juan," she whispered with a smile.

He chuckled softly, then raised his right hand up to cup the second--

In a flash, Sophia jerked the .45 out of the front of Juan's waist, stepped back, and leveled the weapon at his forehead. She said nothing, only pulling back the hammer. Juan's eyes widened as fully as they possibly could as he began slowly raising his hand and he began murmuring in Spanish, words that sounded to Sophia like prayer. After a few seconds, she said calmly, "Juan ... why don't you step outside. I'd like to lay down ... get some sleep ... and I can't do that with a strange man in the next room."

He just stared at her in silence, likely baffled about what was happening and what she was asking. She asked him softly, "Could you do that for me, Juan...? Give me some privacy."

It was probably an odd thing for a woman to ask for from a man after willingly exposing herself to him for no reason. But after a moment, Juan nodded nervously and began backing up. He ran into the door frame, regained himself, and continued toward the Office's exit, half turned away but always watching the woman who followed him only to the bedroom door. She smiled to him broadly as he opened the door to leave, practically running into the person Taylor had sent out to help with security.

"Don't!" Juan said, ranting in Spanish for a moment before saying in English, "Senorita Sophia sleep now."

The woman stepped around the frightened man to look into the Office. But Sophia had closed the door by then. The woman looked to Juan and began questioning him about what had happened. He only stressed that they were supposed to stay outside, to give their visitor her privacy.

Harry had just finished his scotch when Taylor had walked into the office. He was a bit surprised the man had not bothered to knock but now was not the time to rake him over the coals about that. He calmly placed his cup on the desk and then removed his feet from it and looked up at the man.

Once he found out what he wanted he gestured him towards the chair opposite him and they started going over the lists. They went back and forth over a lot of them. The gleaners, Taylor and himself agreed on a lot of things but on others their thoughts differed greatly. After all what was the use of having laundry powder if you couldn't find a source of water.

Harry basically boiled it down to the basics. Food, water, bedding, clothes, heat, cooking. As long as they had those they would survive. Of course Light, a food source, and several other things would be handy as well including a power source.

When Taylor mentioned about the plastic film Harry had sat back and pondered. He knew the stuff he was talking about, he had used it himself actually and it was good stuff. The only dilemma was they couldn't just use it on the roof. They would have to wrap the whole chalet in the stuff and make sure there wasn't a single gap.

"Not a bad idea Taylor, but you may have forgotten something. The fallout isn't just going to be coming down, it is going to be swirling everywhere. We are going to have to wrap the entire place up airtight. That is going to take a lot of film so I hope you know a place around here that stocks a shitload."